Blog – Page 2

S20 and Z Flip

mobco’s highlights on the newly launched devices at Samsung Unpacked 2020

Last night, Samsung held its latest Unpacked-event and presented some new flagship-smartphones to the world. While rumors and leaks already gave us an idea on what to expect, we were still on the edge of our seats to find out all on the new line up…

Off we go!

The Galaxy Z Flip was up first. Movie-lovers already saw a surprise-ad for this new ‘clamshell foldable’ during the Oscars-show and were going wild.

With ‘Flex Mode’, users are able to split the phone’s display into two 4 inch screens showing different types of content each. Think of a video call on the top screen and call control buttons on the bottom one.

Unlike the previous foldable phone (the Galaxy Fold)
the new Galaxy Z Flip is coming to the Belux-region as well!
As of the 21th of February priced at € 1.240 (list price excl. VAT).

Early adopters will be queuing in front of the Samsung-shops to get their hands on the first distributed devices.

Up next is the new Galaxy S20, Coming in three flavors (S20, S20+ and S20 Ultra), this new member of the Galaxy family focuses on quality. An upgraded, AI powered camera (up to 108MP and shooting video’s at 8K!), an all-day battery and a new and more secure processor, it features the premium technologies that Galaxy fans have come to know and expect.

For business users: the new S20 range is secured by the Knox-platform, compatible with DEX desktop mode and holds an IP68-score for water and dust resistance. With the S20 Ultra you can go up to 16GB RAM.

On top of this, the S20 Ultra is the first 5G-compatible device. While politicians in Belgium are still delaying the 5G-network, it’s clear to say that telco companies and smartphone manufacturers are eager to use it.

The S20 is available as of the 13th of March.
S20: as of € 743 (excl. VAT)
S20+: as of 825,62 (excl. VAT)
S20 Ultra: as of €1.114 (excl. VAT)

For closers, we provide an update on the new Galaxy Buds+. Packed with Spotify integration, improved battery and 3 mics it provides an unparalleled sound and voice quality.

Interested to learn more about the new Samsung devices, how to get hold of them in a purchase model or leasing proposal? Let us know!

Buying at mobco provides you extra benefits in terms of extended warranty AND included business software features, at no extra charge!

New Year, New Services 2020

In our continuous quest for better quality services that answer our customer demands, we have put our services offering for 2020 on the next level: Extended Hardware Warranty, New Platform Management and a new Workplace Self Service and Support offering!

Software customers know they get more than just a license!

For starters, the Software Assurance is included in the software subscription or maintenance license and provides you with the latest updates and upgrades, no changes there.

Next we offer a reactive Integration and App Support to assist your IT administrator in solving integration issues that go beyond pure software issues on one platform.

From now on, we want to further in our support and focus more on our pro-active services (so you don’t have to call us for issues) by tuning our Platform Management!

This is a powerful combination of recurring Health Checks and Service Meetings keep your infrastructure and configurations in top shape!

Hardware customers know our extended portfolio of premium brands and accessories, but there’s more!

When you purchase hardware at mobco, you can now select the option for Extended Warranty. A small extra fee that extends the factory warranty and covers repair logistics.

Our leasing offering is getting very popular, and by adding smart services, you can build a custom ‘workplace as a service’!

(see our Apple workplace offer for just 2,5 Euro a day!)

In 2020 we bring both product lines of software and hardware closer together in the ‘Workplace’.

All of our customers have a mobile device management platform and a lot of devices, both active, in repair and on stock.

With the Workplace Self Service, we now offer a portal that handles the complete life cycle of all devices. From start to finish.

Devices in stock or repair are typically out of MDM control, but now remain visible in the portal. No assets get lost.

On top, you can add ‘any asset’ you like to the workplace:

accessories, computers… and SIM cards!

Stay tuned for more news on February 20th.

Complementary to the Self Service we introduce the Workplace Support! A service where your employees, connected to the Workplace Self Service, can call or mail mobco support in case they need extra assistance: hardware and software issues, new device registration, repair, migrating to a new device or professional app questions.

If you want to know more about these services, please contact your sales representative and ask for our 2020 Support Service Description!

Happy New Year!
Happy New Services!

mobco in de standaard

New Year, new ambitions!
Wishing you good luck, joy, business and most importantly a good health!
On top, we also wish you less time on the road and more time on what matters, also for ourselves this is key to success.
This year, a follow-up article was published in De Standaard and Het Nieuwsblad on the introduction of e-step to promote our combi-mobility-plan.
The e-step is not the silver bullet to solve the mobility issue, but it does help. Small steps towards a better (faster) mobility!

Sint-Martens-Bodegem – English translation of original article in De Standaard of January 2, 2020

The IT company mobco had a rather special Christmas present for their employees last year. The 20 company cars got equipped with e-steps!
These compact steps are part of a well-thought ‘combi-mobility-plan’, in which these handy transport devices complement the company car and should also stimulate the use of public transport. ‘By making a smart combination of car, public transport and step, we want to reduce the travel time by 40% and the number of traditional car-miles by 20%’, said Ulrik Van Schepdael at that time. However, a year later that ambition became only partly true. ‘In a number of cases we can actually reduce the travel time’, says Ulrik Van Schepdael, ‘but only when the step is used to cover the last mile from where our employees park their car to the final destination.’
Using the step in combination with public transport is currently not a realistic option. The frequency of trains and busses during the day is too low and the road infrastructure is not always safe to use the step.
Overall, Van Schepdael is positive about the project. Most of our employees regularly use the step. ‘Every car-mile we save is a benefit.’
This Christmas the company introduced a new edition of its combi-mobility-plan. ‘We just can’t go around the company car, but we do encourage our employees to opt for environment friendly cars and they can also use the allocated budget for e-bikes or bikes.’

link to original article in ‘De Standaard’

Cyber Monday

Do you want to own your equipment,
but would rather spread the payments over 3 years?

The 0% leasing-deal could be the right choice for you.

If you’re interested mail your contact person or sales@mob.co

Enjoy #cybermonday

Black Friday

Enjoy our blue deal on black friday*

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Steve Jobs Day

On October 16th we remembered one of the pioneers of microcomputing. Steve Jobs had a heavy impact on technology and the way we interact with technology today. To honour Steve, everyone at mobco came to work in Steve’s typical outfit: turtleneck, jeans and a pair of sneakers.

Former California governor Jerry Brown announced October 16th as “Steve Jobs Day” shortly after Apple’s co-founder and CEO passed away in 2011 following a long battle with pancreatic cancer. Although it may have been a one-off holiday, this day will always be a perfect opportunity to reflect upon Steve Jobs’s legacy.

Let’s talk pro: new Apple hardware

A new article written for professional users why we have a new smartphone standard and why iPad is the new laptop.
Read more on the pro features that matter and the available products for professionals like you, for iPhone this is a range extending from 6S to 11 Pro Max.

The 3 most important take-aways from the 2019 Gartner magic quadrant

Every summer, we get a new magic quadrant from research and advisory company Gartner, which provides a clear overview of all the most important UEM tools. Most UEM providers look forward to this quadrant every year, because each vendor is compared on various factors: capabilities, vision, strategy, … The quadrant is an excellent way to determine the leaders in our sector. This year, there were some changes to the quadrant and our CEO Ulrik Van Schepdael listed them here for you.

1. Unified Endpoint Management is here to stay

We all still often use the term Mobile Device Management when talking about managing mobile devices, but a couple of years ago this was changed into UEM or Unified Endpoint Management. The reason for this acronym change is to clearly indicate that more traditional devices are also incorporated into UEM platforms. So, we now no longer refer to the MDM magic quadrant, but the UEM magic quadrant.

2. UEM platforms should integrate with Client Management Tools

In this year’s edition Gartner has also clearly indicated the need to integrate or co-exist with Client Management Tools. The UEM leaders in the quadrant all manage mobile endpoints, but the ones excelling, are those with the best capability to extend this to traditional PC’s and Mac’s.

I strongly believe there will never be a platform that is capable of managing ‘all devices’ properly: a modern UEM platform should not even invest in legacy Client Management techniques, that’s a waste of effort because it will probably never achieve the same level of detail and management granularity as for example SCCM, to name just one.

I would like to ask Gartner to go back in time and reinstate the Mobile Device Management Magic Quadrant. They should again include players such as SOTI and JAMF, who respectfully declare their focus. They do NOT to try to please ‘all’ but instead excel in their focus. And wouldn’t you rather work with a vendor who has a clear focus and stand out in what they do?

3. What the future will bring

The way I currently see this business evolving is that in the near future we will have a multitude of endpoint management platforms, all linked to a single device or OS vendor. The speed of evolution of each device and OS vendor makes it virtually impossible for this UEM industry to continue on its path of ‘doing it all’. So we will not see one platform taking control over every device in the workplace, and that’s ok! Our advice is to use the best platform for this specific device, OS or asset. You shouldn’t change a great management platform for something that’s less good but does “other things”.

That’s also the reason why we created an Employee Service Portal 2.0. This new workplace control center connects to multiple device management platforms and shows everything in one clear dashboard. With this portal, we no longer talk to the device but we talk to the management platform of the device. As a result you get a comprehensive overview of all assets used by that employee, irrelevant if this is Modern Management, Client Management or just Asset Management.

Click HERE if you want to read the Gartner report.

Please send an e-mail to sales@mob.co or call + 32 2 6699 500 if you want to know more about the Employee Service Portal!

On-Premise Single Sign-On, the user friendly way to stay secure finally works on Android Enterprise

Seamless Single Sign-On (SSO) authentication for mobile devices is now required more than ever. As security threats are on the rise and employees rely on their phones, especially for business related activities, so there is an increased need for a centralized login system.

What is Single Sign-On and how does it work?

Entering credentials manually is frustrating and very time-consuming. But it’s even more error prone on a mobile device. Being able to respond to work-related requests in time benefits employers and employees alike. Especially when your staff is working remotely. Here is where Single Sign-On (SSO) comes in.

SSO provides your users with convenient access to authorized resources without compromising on security. With SSO the user only authenticates once through their device – this is enough to identify the user and grant access for all applications in the company.

Kerberos, the standard of SSO

The Kerberos-authentication technology is the standard to provide Single Sign-On in the enterprise context. It is used within internal environments and has a proven track record. Some of you might wonder how Kerberos exactly works.

Basically, Kerberos comes down to this: It is a protocol for authentication, that uses tickets. It will avoid storing the passwords locally or sending them over the internet – instead it uses a trusted 3rd-party server, the so called KDC. Further it is built on symmetric-key cryptography that makes it extremely secure.

You have a ticket—your proof of identity encrypted with a secret key for the particular service requested—on your local machine; so long as it’s valid, you can access the requested service that is within a Kerberos realm. Rather than re-entering your user/password credentials, your ticket (cached on your system) is used to authenticate allowing for Single Sign-On.

What about Mobile?

Single Sign-On has always been a challenge on mobile phones – especially on Android devices. While companies got the advantage of the Kerberos SSO on their iOS devices, Android users where left behind. To bridge that gap Device Admin and EMM Proprietary solutions were needed to enable it.

Now that companies have to switch to Android Enterprise the Android world is lacking this important feature. Because Device Admin is being deprecated and companies have to switch to Android Enterprise the Android world is lacking this important feature.

Seamless SSO for Android

Fortunately there is some neat Swiss-made and EMM agnostic compatible solution called Hypergate. The Swiss company behind it is developing mobile security applications for more than a decade and designed Hypergate like a Swiss pocket knife: Simple, effective and offers a lot of possibilities.

Hypergate allows a hassle-free authentication to services and lets users consume the services they need on the go. That saves time and keeps the great Android user-experience they’re used to.

It leverages the open Android account’s APIs and enables SPNEGO Kerberos SSO authentication while using system apps like Google Chrome to browse the intranet. It simulates a secure Smart Card logon and handles the native Kerberos protocol just like any other workstation in your network. The communication happens directly with your KDC (Domain Controller), no additional backend component needs to be installed.

Will it work in my environment?

Hypergate is a very flexible application – it’s compatible with all leading Enterprise Mobility Management solution including MobileIron, Microsoft Intune, VMware Workspace ONE, BlackBerry and furthermore. In addition it is device agnostic, allowing you to have a fully diverse BYOD fleet.

The application can be deployed to all employees via the managed google play store. Besides, Hypergate does not require any infrastructural changes at all. Allowing you to set up SSO in hours, not months.

Truly Mobile with Hypergate

A recent update of Hypergate makes Passwords Expirations, Password Changes and Password resets a pain point of the past. It was often the case that if your support team was resetting your password, you were forced to change the password on a Windows machine. Finally your employees can be truly mobile. No dependence on having to use a computer to complete their work. This helps to eliminate the cost of support time.

Get in touch with us if you want to know more about Single Sign-On and Hypergate. We are a certified partner of Hypergate and we are keen to show you what impact Hypergate can have in your work environment.

New Samsung Enterprise Edition devices

Samsung recently announced new additions to their Enterprise Edition line-up. Besides the Note 9, the affordable Galaxy A8, and the higher-end S10 and S10e, it will soon also include the XCover 4S. Other Enterprise edition devices will follow soon this year. Now, why should you choose a Samsung Enterprise edition phone?

The benefits of a Samsung Enterprise device

Samsung developed the Enterprise edition especially for the corporate market and made sure the all-in Enterprise package has everything a company needs. This includes the latest Samsung devices, Knox enterprise software and ongoing tech support. The Enterprise Edition devices bundle gives you efficiency and savings and helps you easily set up an enterprise mobile ecosystem.
This unique offering comes with:
✓ Versatile devices (both high-end and low-end) for all types of businesses, to keep your team connected and productive.
✓ The devices have a market availability of 2 years
✓ 4 years of security and firmware updates, to keep your private data and company data safe
✓ 4 years of E-FOTA on MDM, so you can easily enroll firmware to all the devices
✓ 4 years of Knox Configure, to secure and manage your devices easily

Come to Mobility Matters in Rotterdam if you want to know more about the Samsung Enterprise devices (Samsung is one of our main partners!), or contact our sales team by sending an e-mail to info@mob.co